Aircraft are often used to spread material over a surface, for example, in agricultural, firefighting, forest seeding, and other applications. In traditional spreading systems, a gatebox stores the flow of material from an aircraft. Spreading systems may include a spreader that connects to a gatebox and controls the spread pattern of material that flows out of the gatebox. In some spreading systems, the spreader is made from sheet metal riveted together. A spreader generally has a narrow front (direction of flight) end that captures airflow and fans out to a wide rear end where the airflow exits the spreader. A spreader may include a number of vanes that divide the spreader into sections. In certain systems, material flows from the gatebox into the spreader at the narrow end. The material is conveyed by the captured airflow through the vanes to the wide rear end where the material exits the spreader in a widened pattern.